page_title: Charles Wesley Powell
section_title: Desiderata: "The answer was orchids"
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Wesley Powell / 1926 / Desiderata: "The answer was orchids"
caption_attribution_description: Sobralia decora; Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami, FL, USA
context_page_description: Charles Wesley Powell was an American hobbyist turned horticulturist specializing in the study of orchids. He is credited with providing scientists the first large-scale collection of orchid specimens found in Panama. In the early 1900s, he became internationally famous for his new discoveries and valuable contributions to orchidology by gathering, rediscovering, cultivating, preserving, documenting, and submitting-for-study a diverse assortment of hundreds of distinct specimens: yielding many new to science species.
  Powell's specimen records and his Panama garden were studied by researchers at the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Berlin Botanical Garden, the Orchid Herbarium of Oakes Ames at Harvard University, the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. Dozens of orchid species were named in his honor. In 1922, German botanist Rudolf Schlechter published his 95-page Orchidaceae Powellianae Panamenses: principally on the basis of
  Powell's efforts.
context_section_description: Life in early 1900s Panama presented a unique opportunity for Powell to find his passion in orchids. The labor requirement for the construction of the Panama Canal provided him with a livelihood; and an outing on the newly created Gatun Lake awakened a desire to "catch" orchids instead of fish. Soon, he would become a man on a mission: a man with direction and purpose. Powell searched high and low for beautiful, diverse, rare and new-to-science orchids with great vigor. He risked life and limb to acquire his specimens. The worldwide correspondence, camaraderie, conversation and competition among like-minded orchid lovers suited his nature. Through his later life's love, Powell caught the world by surprise; he may have caught himself by surprise.  Charles Wesley Powell's donation was the manifestation of his calling to serve mankind by contributing to the greater common good: a permanent legacy of his work. As a late bloomer, he made his mark with orchids.
  Desiderata (Latin: "desired things"):
  I wanted flowers. Naturally I wanted the best;
  naturally I wanted something I had never seen.
  The answer was orchids. —Powell, 1926
caption: Sobraila decora. See Powell's specimen February 1915[76]
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